Week 7: Long Run

This week was a 12 mile run on the Sammamish River Trail. I've run this trail before. It's a nice route. Mostly flat (or as Coach puts it "uninteresting"). The weather patterns have been a little odd this last couple of weeks but things have mostly been warming up. Today though was a scorcher! It started off a little nippy but I didn't feel a need to bring along my fleece. That was a good idea. I had two layers today but it really turned out to be a 1 layer day. Hydration was an issue. The water bottle I carried didn't have much water left when I made my turnaround at the 6 mile mark.

I also started off too strong. I followed a pack of team mates going out. They are normally faster than me but I had felt strong the entire week. Mistake! As the weather got hotter, I was struggling to keep up with my normal pace (10 minutes run, 1 minute walk). I threw in a couple more walk breaks (5 minutes run, 1 minute walk) and that seemed to helped. Towards the end, I started feeling strong again and wrapped up the long run on a strong note.

There was a nice surprise waiting for us at the end. Skip, a honored team mate, was making pulled pork sandwiches and fries for everyone. I've been trying to eat better but they looked so good after the run. I finished two sandwiches and some fries (I only wanted one but Skip told me to grab another one when I wanted to leave).